FUNDS FOR GROUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 7

FUNDS FOR GROUNDS

SELF HELP FOR SPORTS

CITY COUNCIL'S APPROVAL

A proposal which was recently put forward by. Councillor P. M. Butler that the sports bodies of Wellington should endeavour.to build up a fund, to be subsidised by the City Council, for the purchase and provision of additional sports grounds and facilities, was given hearty support by the council last nighi when it was referred to it by the reserves committee.

, Councillor W. Duncan, acting chairman of the committee, explained the proposal sis a means by which spor.ts organisations could build up a sub-

stantial fund over a period of years, which fund, subsidised by the council, could be used for the purchase of additional playing fields, which were badly needed. .The proposal was that each sports body should put on a special benefit match during the 1938 i 39 seasons, the proceeds to be pooled in a special fund. The Mayor, Mr. T. dT A. Hislop, said the idea was an excellent one, but so that the council might know where it stood it was advisable that a limit should be set, and he therefore suggested that provision should be made, for an amount to be decided on, in the yearly estimate.' Councillor Butler said that it was not anticipated that any great,amount would be raised in any one year, but over a period a very substantial fund could be built up., •' v

Councillor 3. Read said, he would like to see the plan extended. Sports bodies had not in the past shown the spirit of co-operation which might have been expected of them; the swimming people had not, for instance, made much: effort to assist when the tepid swimming pool proposal had been put forward. •: Councillor L. IVlcKenzie also spoke in support of the proposal, and mentioned that similar glans had been effective in obtaining the ' Prince of Wales Park, the fencing of the Basin Reserve, and the development of Central Park. "' ~

Councillor R. McKeen referred to •the difficulties in which minor sports bodies carried on through, lack of facilities, and suggested that some assistance'might be had from the fund administered by the Hon. W. K. Parry. Councillor C. H. Chapman said that if the proposal'was taken up properly and enthusiastically by the: various sports bodies, a very large'sum could be raised. The council, unfortunately,, was in'the position 9t having very little to spend upon the extension of grounds, but if sports bodies would help themselves the money they could raise, plus the council's subsidy,, should make it ' possible for more grounds to be obtained. The Mayor said that he was most cordially in favour of the proposal that sports bodies should get together and assist themselves and the city as a whole. There Tjvas, however, the difficulty that at present the council had no authority to set aside money from year to year to assist-; in the building up;of such a fund. It'would be advisable, therefore, for the City Solicitor to'draw, up draft legislation with, the object of "giving the council power: to make the scheme seffective.